


Love Locks

by AlterEgon



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alec and Magnus go to Paris, Love Locks, M/M, Treat, date
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-28
Updated: 2017-10-28
Packaged: 2019-01-25 20:19:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12540376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlterEgon/pseuds/AlterEgon
Summary: Alec and Magnus participate in a sadly discontinued tradition on a visit to Paris.





	Love Locks

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Pameluke](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pameluke/gifts).



The sun was going down over Paris, bathing the City of Love in a softer light that would all too soon be drowned out by streetlights to keep the night at bay and the people out and about deceptively safe from the dangers of the night.

The city never stilled. People were out and about at all hours: Tourists, visitors from around the world, couples out to enjoy the mild night following a day that had been almost unpleasantly warm.

Among the couples were two young men, strolling down the right bank of the River Seine arm in arm. They had no eyes for the beauty of the city around them, focused as they were only on each other.

The taller one of them had adopted a style of simple, barely adorned elegance that only emphasized his natural grace. His entire face lit up every time he glanced at the man by his side.

The other one was no less graceful in his movements, but where the first had a hunter's air and balance, he showed the elegance of a dancer, each motion calculated to the greatest effect. Gold braid patterns sparkled on his shirt, and just a hint of glitter dust in the make-up on his face, while dyed highlights added some extra effect to his impeccably styled black hair. The same adoring light shone in his eyes as well.

They walked at their own pace. Even though there were still enough people out and about to have, under normal circumstances, required consideration, changes of pace and small detours to step around those who obstinately would not budge from where they stood to take pictures, the crowd seemed to anticipate their every move and part, letting them cut through it unhindered.

"Magnus," the taller one said as they came to a stop just off one of the bridges that crossed the river. "What have I ever done to deserve you?"

Magnus' smile broadened as he reached up with his free hand to touch his companion's lips with the tip of a finger. "You're just a very, very lucky man, Alexander," he suggested, his voice low.

"Very lucky indeed." Alec cupped a hand around the back of Magnus' head, drawing his boyfriend to him.

Magnus moved along with his suggestion, until their lips met and they locked into a long, deep kiss while people flowed around them, not even seeming bothered by the obstacle in their way.

"I brought something," Alec said, a little breathlessly as they broke apart. "Except…" He glanced around, looking at the bridge as his hand went into his pocket. "I'm not sure we're in the right location."

Magnus' eyebrows rose in a wondering expression. "Where should we be?"

"A bridge where people—" Alec brought out a small object for Magnus' inspection.

It had started out its life as a simple padlock, but someone had gone to the effort of embellishing it with delicate engravings, permanently sinking both their names into the metal in a flourish of calligraphy.

"—put up locks to symbolize their love for each other." He looked back at the bridge again, as if checking once more could make the missing locks appear.

"Right place, wrong year," Magnus said, pointing at a sign placed at the entrance to the bridge, not particularly obtrusive, but large enough to send a clear message. "Looks like they took them off a few years ago and imposed a ban against having new ones."

There was a flash of disappointment on Alec's face before he concealed it under a smile. "We'll just have to put it somewhere else then," he said.

"We could," Magnus agreed. "Or we could just put it here."

It was Alec's turn to raise his eyebrows now. "But the sign?"

"Sometimes, Alexander, a rule is made to be broken."

Alec's face brightened with the broadening of his smile. Once upon a time, he would have been more reluctant to break a rule so clearly stated. Today, he walked ahead onto the bridge, pulling Magnus after him.

The railing he had seen in pictures, filled with rows of locks placed side by side until they formed near-solid walls, was gone, replaced by a metal and Plexiglas affair in which even the bolts holding the tubes of the frame together were covered up smoothly so as not to allow any structure to which a padlock could be attached.

There were some hanging from the heads of the streetlights along the sides of the bridge, but they were few enough to suggest they were removed often.

"This doesn't look very promising," Alec said, but his smile hadn't lessened. "That is, unless you would…?"

"It will be my pleasure, Alexander," Magnus returned, his own expression mirroring Alec's. "Pick a spot."

Alec walked up to the location he gaged to be the precise center of the bridge and put his hand on the railing there. "How about here?"

"Here's just fine." Magnus Bane, the High Warlock of Brooklyn, currently on a day trip to Paris to spend some hours with his boyfriend undisturbed by either one's obligations back home, flexed his fingers. Magic gathered around them, its sparkle adding to the glitter Magnus was already wearing. It took only seconds to put a small hole through the vertical tube right below the top end, just large enough to fit the opened padlock through.

Alec hesitated before snapping it shut. "Together?"

A moment later, Magnus' hand rested on his, and they pressed the mechanism home until the small 'click' told them the lock had engaged.

"I think the key goes in the river," Magnus suggested.

They watched the small piece of metal's flight through the growing darkness, imaging they could see it hit the water and be carried off, through under the bridge and away to the ocean.

As they stood, honoring their highly irregular lock with another deep, long kiss, Magnus once again drew power with a flick of his fingers behind Alec's back, content only when he was certain that the metal of the padlock had firmly fused to the material of the railing. Even if the glamor on it broke, no one was going to remove _their_ lock from this bridge.


End file.
